This application relates to an oxy-fuel burner, and in particular a staged oxy-fuel burner, configured with instrumentation to monitor the status and health of the burner, as well as burner operation and its effect on the process, to perform real-time control of burner operation based on data obtained from such monitoring, and to enable intelligent preventative maintenance to be conducted no sooner than necessary but prior to a failure or unforeseen shutdown condition.
For conventional burner systems, furnace operators determine a maintenance schedule on past experience, or on a regular calendar basis. This frequently results in a maintenance schedule that is overly aggressive, costing excess man hours and burner downtime, or is overly lax, failing to capture correctable burner issues before a failure occurs.
Systems exist for limited monitoring of various burner parameters, but none integrates this monitoring in a comprehensive way to enable predictive maintenance. For example, some existing systems require optical access of a flame, temperature sensors to prevent overheating, or pressure sensors to monitor flame instability. But none monitor combinations of parameters in a way that enables predictive maintenance.